Compliance and rehabilitation effects of Zheng's supine rehabilitation exercise performed at home among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a retrospective study

Ni Liu; Wenying Wu; Zhuqiao Chen; Jieying Hu; Feng Yang; Zhou Yu; Rongchang Chen; Zeguang Zheng; Yinhuan Li

doi:10.21037/jtd-23-779

Compliance and rehabilitation effects of Zheng's supine rehabilitation exercise performed at home among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a retrospective study

J Thorac Dis. 2023 Dec 30;15(12):6525-6533. doi: 10.21037/jtd-23-779. Epub 2023 Dec 21.

Authors

Ni Liu^#¹, Wenying Wu^#², Zhuqiao Chen^#³, Jieying Hu¹, Feng Yang¹, Zhou Yu², Rongchang Chen⁴, Zeguang Zheng¹, Yinhuan Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
² Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanhua University, School of Nursing University of South China, Hengyang, China.
³ Yabao Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Shenzhen Institute of Respiratory Diseases, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, Shenzhen People's Hospital (Second Clinical Medical College of Jinan University, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, China.
⁵ Department of Respiratory Medicine, Panyu Central Hospital of Guangzhou, Guangzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Zheng's supine rehabilitation exercise (ZSRE) can be performed by elderly patients with the acute exacerbation of severe or extremely severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with high safety and compliance and was helpful for their recovery. Investigation is warranted of the compliance and rehabilitation effects of ZSRE performed at home in patients with COPD.

Methods: We performed telephone interviews with 157 patients with COPD who were hospitalized on the 26th floor of the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease and who received COPD education and ZSRE training from 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2016. We retrospectively analyzed the patients' compliance with performing ZSRE at home after discharge and the frequency of hospitalization for treatment of acute exacerbation in both the previous and subsequent years.

Results: Among the 157 patients, 66 failed to complete home ZSRE after discharge (non-rehabilitation group), 41 performed home ZSRE once a day after discharge (one-session rehabilitation group), and 50 performed home ZSRE at least twice a day after discharge (multiple-session rehabilitation group). The home ZSRE compliance rate was 57.96% (91/157). There were no significant differences in the mean number of hospitalizations in the year prior to receiving COPD education and ZSRE training among the non-rehabilitation group (1.06±0.75), one-session rehabilitation group (1.27±0.78), and multiple-session rehabilitation group (1.16±0.91). However, there was a significant difference in the mean number of hospitalizations among the groups in the year following discharge (1.44±1.17, 0.78±0.82, and 0.66±0.75, respectively). The number of hospitalizations significantly increased in the non-rehabilitation group and significantly decreased in the one- and multiple-session rehabilitation groups.

Conclusions: Home ZSRE can be performed with high compliance by elderly patients with severe or extremely severe COPD and can reduce the number of readmissions.

Keywords: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); Zheng’s supine rehabilitation exercise (ZSRE); home rehabilitation; pulmonary rehabilitation.